In the early morning hours of Saturday, December 2nd, one University of California (UC) student and at least 2 local residents, including former mayoral candidate Zachary Running Wolf, climbed and occupied trees in a grove of Oaks that UC plans to cut down. UC is planning destroy the last grove of coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia) in the Berkeley lowlands in order to build a parking lot and sports training facility.

On December 5th, the UC Regents voted to move forward with the project.

On December 16th, there was a "Day of Celebration Under the Tree-Sitters"
from
11am-6pm.
Country Joe McDonald, Wavy Gravy, Carol Denney Fiddlers for Peace
performed.

Coast Live Oaks were once the primary woodland ecosystem of the east bay and are a central part of what defines our region. In fact these native trees are so important that several years ago Berkeley passed a law forbidding their destruction. Under the law, which is called the Berkeley Coast Live Oak Moratorium, it is illegal to cut down any mature Coast Live Oak within the Berkeley city limits which measures over six inches in diameter at chest height.

Every one of the 38 threatened oaks in the Memorial Grove should be protected from destruction under the Berkeley moratorium, but the University has stated that because UC is part of state government, they are “not obliged to obey local environmental laws.”